These and others recently made headlines

Deep learning is a branch of machine learning in which neural networks teach themselves and make decisions on their own. Deep learning neural networks serve as powerful computational tools for prediction, decision-making, diagnosis, and detection. They have applications in computer security, speech recognition, medical diagnostics, finance, and other arenas. Graupe’s book is intended for graduate students and researchers.

A professor emeritus of computer engineering, bioengineering, and neurology at the University of Illinois, Chicago, Graupe is codirector of the university’s signal and image processing laboratory.

Fellow G. Satheesh Reddyreceived the first IEI-IEEE Award for Engineering Excellence. The award, presented jointly by IEEE and the Institution of Engineers (India), recognizes an outstanding individual contribution in government, industry, academia, or R&D. Reddy was recognized for contributions to missile and aerospace technologies.

He is a scientific advisor to India’s Ministry of Defense and is director of Research Centre Imarat, a defense technology hub in Hyderabad. At RCI he is in charge of the design and development of inertial sensors, satellite navigation systems, missile components, and calibration techniques.

Photo: University of Seattle

Senior Member Joshua Smith and his research team at the University of Washington in Seattle were featured in The Seattle Times for their development of interscatter technology, which converts Bluetooth signals into Wi-Fi signals. The technology, which can enable implanted medical devices to send health data to a smart device, requires little power. That is especially important for pacemakers, for example, because their batteries are not easily replaced.

Smith is an associate professor of electrical engineering at the school.

Photo: Missouri State University of Science and Technology

Senior Member Ronald J. Stanley received the 2016 C. Holmes MacDonald Outstanding Teaching Award from IEEE–Eta Kappa Nu (HKN), the organization’s honor society. The award is named for a past national director of HKN and professor of electrical engineering at Drexel University, in Philadelphia. Stanley was recognized for contributions to engineering education and dedication to preuniversity outreach.

He is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Missouri State University of Science and Technology, in Rolla. He helped found Project Lead the Way, a nonprofit provider of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education programs for preuniversity students and professional development resources for teachers.

Photo: Washington University

Senior Member Lan Yang is the principal investigator of a project that received a US $2 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation. Yang, a professor of systems engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has been selected to lead a team of researchers from Stanford, the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin, and Wesleyan University. Her team plans to study novel ways in which light and acoustic waves propagate—which could have applications in communications, computation, information processing, and public health.

The goal of the project is to bend two laws of physics that currently govern photonic systems: time-reversal symmetry and reciprocity. Time-reversal symmetry means, essentially, that what goes around comes around: There’s no fundamental difference between light that travels forward and light that travels backward, because they both end up at the same point. Similarly, reciprocity involves a return from one point to another and back again. In an optical fiber, for example, light can propagate both forward and backward.

“We want to break the natural state to find phenomena or activities that are unexpected,” Yang said in an interview with The Source. “What we are seeking is new ways of working with light and sound so that we can create system structures with new functionality.”

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